The Olympic Opening Ceremony was beautiful but very rain-soaked. President Macron really had VIPs sitting in bleachers, wearing flimsy rain gear as they watched most of the opening ceremony on video monitors. When I say VIPs, I mean it too – a who’s who of European royalty, celebrities from Europe and North America, and many world leaders all came out for the Opening Ceremony and most of them stayed throughout the weekend to attend some of the first events. Monaco’s Prince Albert and Princess Charlene (and their kids) were there, as were King Felipe and Queen Letizia.
Notably, the UK’s big royal ambassador for the Olympics skipped the opening ceremony. Princess Anne was an Olympian too – she competed in some equestrian events at the 1976 Montreal Olympics but did not medal. In the 1980s, she was basically assigned all Team Great Britain Olympic events – she does photocalls with British Olympians and she shows up to Olympic events around the world. But Anne is currently still in poor health because she got kicked in the face by a horse. She’s supposed to be taking it easy. But the family still made her go to the Paris Olympics! She skipped the opening ceremony, but she came out over the weekend.
Here’s what I don’t get… if the Windsors know that Anne needs rest – to the point where most of her events have been canceled this month – why not assign the Olympic stuff to another royal? We haven’t seen Sophie and Edward in a while, and they have friendships with other European royals. They should have been sent to the opening ceremony, right? Of course, you could make the argument that Prince William, as heir, should have been sent to the opening ceremony too. But his summer vacation has already started.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Getty.